Boston Globe Feature: A Special Night at Bowdoin
While the Meddies weren't mentioned by name, it was clear that we had a very special performance at the home men's hockey game against St. Michael's on February sixth. Here is the full text of the Boston Globe (http://www.boston.com) article written by Jim McCabe and published February 27:
It was a song his mother had favored very much. "A Whiter Shade of Pale" had been played at Adam Dann's mother's wedding many years earlier, only this time the occasion took on a different complexion. Before the start of the Bowdoin-St. Michael's hockey game in Brunswick, Maine, Feb. 6, an a cappella group from Bowdoin College sang the song as a tribute to the memory of Cathleen Dann, who had died of cancer nearly two weeks earlier.
The song over and the tears still moist, Adam Dann needed a mere 36 seconds to add his own special tribute - the first of his three goals - and historic Dayton Arena perhaps had never played host to a warmer scene.
Surely, behind the Bowdoin bench, coach Terry Meagher had never experienced anything quite like the emotions that embraced him that cold night. Now in the 21st year of his superb coaching career, the onetime Boston University standout conceded his faith in the human spirit had once again been reinforced.
"A lot of our kids have witnessed life at its toughest," said Meagher. "They've seen how very unfair it can be."
Meagher said it's not so much that Adam Dann, a sophomore forward from Burlington, Vt., carried on with his studies and his hockey duties during his mother's illness and then in the aftermath of her death. But it's the way in which he did so. "With so much dignity and so much character."
For Dann, whose mother was first diagnosed with cancer in the fall of 2002, his freshman year, the performance is easy to explain.
"I think the main thing is, I've been focused on exactly what my mom would have wanted me to do," said the former star at Rice Memorial High School in Burlington and St. Paul's. "She loved to watch me play hockey and she wouldn't have wanted me to take time off from school and hockey."
His numbers show that he has honored her memory in fine fashion.
Two days before Cathleen died, Adam scored twice in a win over Tufts. Four days after his mother's death, Dann took to the ice and posted an assist in Bowdoin's 3-2 win over Wesleyan. Two games later, he notched the hat trick in the 11-0 romp over St. Michael's. In all, Adam has 7 goals and 12 points in the seven games he's played since his mother's death.
"Hers was a courageous fight [with cancer">," said Meagher. "It certainly puts things in perspective and Adam has been remarkable. He's taught us all a lesson."
Dann posted a team-high 19 goals and finished second in points (28) for a Bowdoin club that went 16-7-0 overall and finished third in the NESCAC at 12-6-0. Next up are the NESCAC playoffs and a date with visiting Hamilton tomorrow, and while it figures to be yet another hockey challenge, Meagher has seen his players rise above far more substantial hurdles. The tribute before the St. Michael's game paid respects to Dann's mother and to the memory of goaltender Ben Yormak's mother, who had died several months earlier. And just a few seasons ago, said Meagher, the club had been drawn closer in the aftermath of a tragic car crash that had claimed the life of another teammate's mother.
"They've gone through a lot," said Meagher. "They've gone through a lot of adversity, but they've showed a lot of character."